Mage Tank by Cornman (2025)

Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle (2025)

***Lucky Day* is the latest from Chuck Tingle, *USA Today* bestselling author of *Camp Damascus* and *Bury Your Gays*, where one woman must go up against horrifying odds to save the world.** Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, 8 million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways: strangled by balloon ropes, torn apart by exploding manhole covers, attacked by a chimpanzee wielding a typewriter. A day of freak accidents that proved anything is possible, no matter the odds. Luck is real now, and it's not always good. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore. When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously—and statistically impossible—lucky casino. He needs her help to prove the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t. Because what's happening in Vegas isn't staying there, and she's the only thing that stands between the world and another deadly improbability...

Isola by Allegra Goodman (2025)

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this epic saga of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam. Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. Isolated and afraid, Marguerite befriends her guardian’s servant and the two develop an intense attraction. But when their relationship is discovered, they are brutally punished and abandoned on a small island with no hope for rescue. Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed. Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

Heart the Lover by Lily King (2025)

*You knew I’d write a book about you someday.* Our narrator understands good love stories—their secrets and subtext, their highs and their free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the simple rules. In the fall of her senior year of college, she meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. Best friends living off-campus in the elegant house of a professor on sabbatical, the boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. Youthful passion is unpredictable though, and she soon finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever. Decades later, Jordan is living the life she dreamed of, and the vulnerable days of her youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news brings the past crashing into the present, Jordan returns to a world she left behind and is forced to confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self. [Heart the Lover pdf](https://chesserresources.com/doc/heart-the-lover-by-lily-king-pdf/)

The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe (2025)

When language is magic, words don’t just hurt - **they *kill***. When a local politician is murdered by Hawaiian magic, all signs point to Kea Petrova, the only Hawaiian spell smith for hundreds of miles. There’s just one problem. Kea doesn’t *write* death spells.

Our Lake by Angie Kang (2025)

On a sweltering hot day, a little boy mirrors his brother as he takes off his shirt, stretches, and walks toward the edge of the tall rock, ready to dive into the cool lake waters glistening below. Only this time, Father is not here. And the water looks so far away. How can he take the plunge?

The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand (2025)

It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy and amidst the happy chaos of friends reuniting, selfies uploading, and cars unloading, shocking news: America Today just ranked Tiffin the number two boarding school in the country. It’s a seventeen-spot jump – was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, class sizes are small, and the dining hall is run by an acclaimed New York chef. And they do have fun—lots of parties and school dances, and a piano man plays in the student lounge every Monday night. But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn – and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin’s campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. From Davi Banerjee, international influencer and resident queen bee, to Simone Bergeron, the new and surprisingly young history teacher, to Charley Hicks, a transfer student who seems determined not to fit in, to Cordelia Spooner, Admissions Director with a somewhat idiosyncratic methodology – everyone has something to hide. As if high school wasn’t dramatic enough... As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin’s students and staff are changed forever.

Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (2025)

Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back. Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me. Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.

O'SHAUGHNESSY INVESTIGATIONS, INC. by A. G. Russo (2025)

A World War II-era mystery novel about Maeve O'Shaughnessy and Vic Marino as they help keep the O'Shaughnessy Detective Agency running in wartime Brooklyn. The story follows their private-investigation work, family pressures, gang encounters, murder, and the challenges of maintaining the agency while loved ones are away at war.

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell (2025)

Nebula Award-winning author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In John Wiswell brings a humanizing and humorous touch to the Hercules story, forever changing the way we understand the man behind the myth—and the goddess reluctantly bound to him Sometimes a goddess's worst enemy is her biggest fan. Heracles, hero of Greece, dedicates all his feats to the goddess Hera. If only he knew that his very face is an insult to her...as he is yet another child that Hera’s dipshit husband, Zeus, had out of wedlock. “Auntie Hera” loathes every minute of Heracles’ devotion, until she snaps and causes an unspeakably tragic accident: the death of Heracles' children. Plunged into grief and desperate for revenge, Heracles is determined to find the god that did this. Wracked with guilt and desperate to save face, Hera distracts Heracles with monster-slaying quests, only to find that he is too traumatized to enact more violence. Instead, Heracles cares for the Nemean lion, bonds with the Lernaean hydra, and heeds the Ceryneian hind. Each challenge adds a new monster to Heracles' newfound family. A family that just might lay siege to Mount Olympos.

Hombrecito by Santiago José Sánchez (2025)

A novel by a brilliant new voice, Hombrecito is a queer coming-of-age story about a young immigrant’s complex relationships with his mother and his motherland\ \ In this groundbreaking novel, Santiago José Sánchez plunges us into the heart of one boy’s life. His mother takes him and his brother from Colombia to America, leaving their absent father behind but essentially disappearing herself once they get to Miami. In America, his mother works as a waitress when she was once a doctor. The boy embraces his queer identity as wholeheartedly as he embraces his new home, but not without a sense of loss. As he grows, his relationship with his mother becomes fraught, tangled, a love so intense that it borders on vivid pain but is also the axis around which his every decision revolves. She may have once forgotten him, disappeared, but she is always on his mind. He moves to New York, ducking in and out of bed with different men as he seeks out something, someone, to make him whole again. When his mother invites him to visit family in Colombia with her, he returns to the country as a young man, trying to find peace with his father, with his homeland, with who he’s become since he left, and with who his mother finally we come to know her and her secrets, her complex ambivalence and fierce love. Hombrecito— “little man”—is a moving portrait of a young person between cultures, between different ideas of himself. From an extraordinary new talent, this is a story told with startling beauty and intensity, a story for anyone searching for home, searching for a way to love.

Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen (2025)

**The Netherlands, 1887.** Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate. The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harboring secrets of her own, too. Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behavior takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry… and hungry. Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth, or risk losing her forever.

Mina vänner by Fredrik Backman (2025)

De flesta lägger knappt märke till dem – tre små gestalter som sitter på en pir på en av världens mest kända målningar. De flesta som beundrar tavlan ser bara piren och havet, men Louisa, en ensam strulig artonåring, blir alldeles betagen och beslutar sig för att ta reda på historien om dessa tre gåtfulla figurer. Tjugofem år tidigare, i en avlägsen kuststad, hittar en grupp utsatta tonåringar en öde pir i hamnen där de hänger hela långa sommaren. De drar larviga skämt, delar hemligheter, tjuvröker och svalkar sig i havet. Gemenskapen ger dem en anledning att stiga upp på morgonen, en anledning att drömma, en anledning att våga älska. En av dem målar sitt första verk den sommaren. En tavla som senare kommer betraktas som en av sin tids stora mästerverk. Efter en rad osannolika händelser kommer Louisa över den världsberömda tavlan. Hon ger sig ut på en resa tvärs genom landet för att förstå hur målningen kom till och för att bestämma vad hon ska göra med den. Ju närmare hon kommer målningens ursprung, desto mer nervös blir hon för vad hon kan upptäcka.

In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco (2025)

Marmee, Meema, and the kids are just like any other family on the block. In their beautiful house, they cook dinner together, they laugh together, and they dance together. But some of the other families don't accept them. They say they are different. How can a family have two moms and no dad? But Marmee and Meema's house is full of love. And they teach their children that different doesn't mean wrong. And no matter how many moms or dads they have, they are everything a family is meant to be. Here is a true Polacco story of a family, living by their own rules, and the strength they gain by the love they feel.

Wicked Choices by Arianna Fraser (2025)

**Even a man who knows his duty can be selfish.** I'm Michael MacTavish, first born to Cormac, Chieftain of the MacTavish Mafia. I will take over my father's role, overseeing the biggest crime family in Scotland and our multi-billion dollar empire. I know my duty. I also know what I want. What I crave. Sweet Sophie, our housekeeper's daughter. I've kept my distance. But when she's caught in the middle of a web of betrayal, the only way I can save her from being punished by my family is simple. Marry her. **Sophie:** There's nothing more ironic than the realization that getting everything I ever dreamt of... is the worst possible thing that could happen to me. When the man I knew as charming and kind, turns cold and cruel when he thinks I'm a traitor to his clan. That a hasty, forced marriage is nothing like my ridiculous, girlish dreams. And the most difficult thing of all? The knowledge that I'm still hopelessly in love with him.

Scorched Hearts by Arianna Fraser (2025)

**They say when you save someone's life, you're responsible for them for the rest of yours...** **Wallace:** When I saved Scarlett from a fire I created, I realized I'm not just responsible for her. I own her. I burn for her. She's mine, whether she wants to be, or not. **Scarlett:** This enormous man raced through the flames to save me and now, it's all madness. I'm in Scotland, in his house. But I know that what's waiting for me back in Boston is so much worse. He shows me all the darkest places in Edinburgh. Dark places, he says, for doing dark deeds. He forces me to marry him for "protection." There's a much darker side to Wallace, too. As the days pass, I'm not sure if I'm scared that he'll reveal it, or if I'm desperate for him to show me who he really is.

Rekindled by Arianna Fraser (2025)

**Catriona:** We’ve both been dancing around our attraction to each other since Lucas became my personal bodyguard. I waited years for this, for us to admit how we feel and to do something about it. When I woke up the next day, I was so happy. It was time to build on our relationship. Until I found out he was gone. **Lucas:** “You do not get involved with your asset.” The first rule of being a bodyguard. I broke my oath to my Chieftain by sleeping with his daughter. It didn't matter how I felt about her, I couldn't stay there. I left Scotland and worked with a new assignment for three years, trying to forget Cat. But when I receive word that she’s been kidnapped, I’m on the first jet home. Saving Catriona is the only thing that matters.

Beautiful Monster by Arianna Fraser (2025)

I don't. I may be a MacTavish, but it's not an emotion I'm capable of, one I don't understand. So, if someone in my clan must agree to an arranged marriage, it might as well be me. The bride being pulled down the aisle to me is beautiful, and terrified. But she's got a stubborn tilt to her jaw that's making me think she's not giving up so easily. Perfect. She's just the kind of girl I love to break. Beautiful Monster is a dark Scottish Mafia Romance with no cheating and a HEA.

Finders, Keepers by Arianna Fraser (2025)

You shouldn't be here, little girl. Whatever you do, don't run. Because we'll chase you. Luna: Making new friends, that's what traveling is all about, right? It's midnight, I'm running through the woods outside an enormous mansion. Men in masks are chasing me, and my new "friends" are nowhere to be found. I've been set up. And I have no way to get out of this. Kai: This girl is easy prey, with her terrified blue eyes and that blonde hair streaming behind her as she runs. It's like offering a raw steak to a pack of rabid dogs. I'm going to catch her first, because in the Dark Games, it's Finders, Keepers. Even if she doesn't want to be kept.

The Highest Bidder by Arianna Fraser (2025)

She thought being sold at The Auction meant she was his just for one night. She was wrong. Ethan... I find lost things and people for the MacTavish Scottish Mafia. Sometimes, I return them to their proper owner. Sometimes, I make them disappear. When I'm charged with bringing back runaway Sloan Masters to her father, the instructions are disturbing: If you can't extract her, unalive her. I don't hurt women, I protect them. But I still have a job to do. When I find her, there's one more wrinkle. To retrieve her, I'll need to be the highest bidder at her auction. This pretty little runaway is expensive, but her sweet body is worth every penny. She's fascinating; secretive and fueled by fury, and she's not willing to trust me. Taming her will be the biggest challenge of my life. I'm ready for it. Sloan... They call him the Scottish Demon. His name is uttered like a curse throughout the crime world, a horror story parents tell to children to make them behave. So when he comes for me, I can’t run fast enough. Ethan MacTavish has the body of a Greek god and the charm of a sociopath bent on world domination. I can’t tell him the secret I’m hiding, the reason my stepfather sent the Demon after me. The more I fight, the tighter he holds me. Can I trust him with my secret, or will he make me disappear, too?